iSee - David Woodbridge Technology Blog

Monday, 13 February 2017

Melbourne University Develops Device that Detects Obstacles

This will be a fantastic mobility aid if it comes to market for cane and Guide Dog users, detecting non protruding hazards such as descending stairs, pot holes, curbs, and the edges of railway station platforms will be of great benefit.

Not yet on the online store, but apparently available for sale, retailing for $623.

iPad turned 7 last Week

The iPad was announced in January 2010, and I remember doing the Australian launch for it in May at the Spectronics conference in Brisbane.

AirPods get a Firmware Update

If you have the AirPods in their case, over the last week or so, when connected, you’ll notice in Settings, General, About that the version number will be 3.51. Apple has not said what the update contains, but my bug with the keyboard talking louder when inputing text has be fixed.

Tuesday, 31 January 2017

Synapptic Update

Please note that Synapptic version 6 has been released and is available to update via the settings menu in Synapptic. It could take 5 to 10 minutes to download and you will be taken to the Android screen where you need to press the install button after it has been downloaded. Naturally when you go out to Android you will need to turn on Talkback or Voice Assist depending on what phone you are using. When you go back into Synapptic please remember to turn off Talkback or Voice Assist again.

The new weather forecast option in the Tools Menu gives accurate forecasts and current weather details for anywhere in the world.

Android apps can now be launched directly from Synapptic. Find this new option in the Tools menu. This new feature, in combination with the triple tap feature to start or stop TalkBack, provides simple and powerful access to the more complex parts of Android.

The new magnifier option converts your phone or tablet into a premium hand-held electronic magnifier and has options to freeze, zoom up to x100, save, rename, switch colours/contrast, and also gives direct access to the reading machine!

A new line-view reading mode makes eccentric reading easy with text automatically scrolling across the screen at an adjustable speed. This can be used to read emails, text messages, reading machine documents, notes, etc.

If you use the Synapptic Radio player, you'll really appreciate the new features we've added to make it quicker and easier to find your favourite radio stations. A new search feature allows you to search easily though the thousands of stations, and a favourites list makes it quick and simple to play your favourite ones.

Get the most out of every photograph and image with the super-powerful photo viewer. It can now magnify up to x100 and is easily operated with pinch and zoom.

To make it easier to group and find photos, each photo you take can now be given a name. The list of photos can be quickly and easily searched to find the photo or group of photos required.

If you take lots of photos the new photo viewer is now super-quick to operate and allows many unwanted photos to be deleted at once.

The reading machine now has two new modes. Normal Mode is great for normal text from books, magazines and newspapers. Ignore Columns Mode will ignore any columns of text and just reads from left to right. This mode is particularly useful for things like bank statements.

Reading machine text can now be saved and the file given a specific name.

A new Reading Machine search option makes it quick and easy to find previous text.

Reading machine text can now also be transferred to the Notepad for further editing.

When you have lots of Voice Memos, the new rename and search features allow you to easily organise memos and quickly find specific or groups of memos.

To help keep Synapptic even more simple to operate we have made the bottom left of the screen the standard location for buttons to continue or confirm a selection of emails, photos or folders, etc.

With an ever increasing number of emails being sent and received we have introduced a new feature to make it quicker and easier to delete multiple emails at the same time.

Synapptic can automatically fetch new emails, but a new Fetch Emails menu option towards the top of the Email Menu now makes it quicker and easier to fetch emails manually.

No one likes to suddenly loose an email, note or text message they're in the middle of working on. To help make sure this never happens, we've introduced a new prompt which asks if you are sure you wish to exit a Synapptic screen without saving the text.

To help with organising and quickly finding specific notes in the Notepad, we've added the ability to rename notes and to search for notes with a specific name or containing specific words.

When there are hundreds of contacts in your address book, we've improved the speed and responsiveness of screens that allow you to pick a contact.

If you like to write long emails, this new feature will definitely help! A new email drafts feature allows an email to be saved and worked on over several days.

To help make voice recognition easier, the button to turn voice recognition on and off for the keyboard has been enlarged, so it's easier to locate.

It's now easier to manage text you have spoken in with voice recognition. The delete key has two functions. It first deletes the complete last utterance, then continues to function as a normal delete key, deleting one character at a time.

If you use Synapptic in Double Tap mode, it can be slow and frustrating when using the keyboard. A new setting allows the keyboard to work in normal Single Tap mode, independently of the menus working in double tap mode.

If you're new to a computer keyboard, the QWERTY layout can be confusing and make it slow to type. A new keyboard setting now allows the keyboard to be configured as an ABC style keyboard or a QWERTY style keyboard.

Want to customise your Main Menu and add shortcuts for quick access, or delete options for an even simpler menu? The new Customise option in the Settings Menu makes this much quicker and easier. Move an option to a new location, add in an extra option or delete an unwanted option. Certain sub-menu items, like the new Magnifier, Weather and App Launcher options can also be added directly to the Main Menu for quick access.

The comma key on the keyboard now changes to an at ( @ ) sign when typing an email address. This saves time and means you don't need to switch to the numbers keyboard to complete an address.

The option to password protect the Settings Menu has been removed due to the new lock screen options. A new lock screen adds new security and protection features. Set the lock screen to be operated by either a PIN, Swipe or disabled altogether.

With the line between Smartphones and Tablets becoming ever more blurred, a new setting allows you to manually select the type of device (Tablet or Smartphone) that Synapptic is running on, if it's not been detected automatically.

For overseas customers, a new feature is available to automatically detect, or manually set, the required language for menus and other text within Synapptic.

New stations have been added to both the Radio Player and Digital TV player.

Various other minor enhancements have also been made to version 6.

How to Get Siri to Read an Article Out Loud on iPhone or iPad

Siri can read any screen of your iPhone with the Speak screen command if this is turned on in Settings, General, Accessibility, Speech, Speak Screen. Note - this doesn’t work on the Home screens.

Sunday, 29 January 2017

Certificate Fix for Zoomtext Products

The digital certificate used to certify newer ZoomText and Window-Eyes software products has been compromised. As a result, our certificate will be revoked on or around January 26th, which will result in startup failures for the following Ai Squared products.

Affected Ai Squared Software Products

When attempting to start the following Ai Squared software products, the product will fail to launch and display a Windows error message: “A referral was returned from the server”

When attempting to start the following Ai Squared software products, the product may launch even though the certificate has been revoked. Anti-virus utilities may detect the invalid certificate and block the software from running.

Note: Inspection of the certificate will show that the certificate is invalid. Inspection and validation of certificates is a process performed by some organizations.

Solution (software updates)

For each of the affected products, software updates incorporating a new digital signature will be released and available for download prior to January 26th. These updates will be available using the Check for Updates wizard where available or by download :

Just a reminder to folks that the Olitech is a large print mobile phone suitable for folks with low vision, not for people who are blind or who use speech output: only the keypad speaks, not the menus of the phone.

Windows 10 upcoming release in Spring (US) 2017 has a number of accessibility improvements including finally support for refreshable Braille displays:

In this issue, these articles caught my attention: Microsoft Word with NVDA Training Guide, Game Review - Timecrest: The Door, Accessible Recipes for Cooking and Entertaining, and What is NEW in Mac Sierra and the New MacBooks.

http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw171201

AirPods arrived, but no chance to put them through their paces, will report back in the new year with a podcast.

In case you don’t want to wait for my podcast, here is a guide on the use of the AirPods from iMore:

http://www.imore.com/airpods-ultimate-guide

Similarly, I have now got my hands on a loan MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar, and will report what I think in the new year.

Dr Robert Carter who produces the Tech doctor Blog and Podcast has done an excellent job of overviewing the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar:

http://www.dr-carter.com

For those that may need a bit of help with their Apple products over the Christmas/new year period from an accessibility point of view, the Apple Accessibility Helpdesk is only closed in the US on Christmas and New Years day, so you can still contact them outside of these days on 1300 365 083.

I haven’t checked the operational hours for the Disability Helpdesk from Microsoft: but they can be contacted on 1800 280 300.